WEEK 2

To Fly... Week 2

Date & Time: Thursday 8th May, 1997, 18:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 1 hour (ground) 1 hour (air) - - Total 2 hrs. Running logbook total: 3.6 hrs
Aircraft: Cessna 152, number N48830
Dual Instruction with Lee Simmons.

Keep on trucking...keep going...stall! Recover...

   Today we did some more talking on the ground about what we were going to do, critical angles of attack, approach and departure stalls before going out to do the preflight. Once again, Lee outlined the importance of a 180 degree clearing turn to look for traffic before doing any slow flight or stall manoever.
   Time to fly. I preflight the airplane. I'm getting better at finding the things to look for now, so this takes a little less time. Soon it's time to shout "CLEAR!!" out of the window, and crank the engine up. My taxi has improved too - this time I manage to keep it on the yellow line up the middle of the taxiway without wandering off towards the grass. We follow the club's Cessna 172 out up the taxiway - we had started mere moments after it went off with another student and instructor. We get to the run up area just as they are finishing their run up check. They go off, and we do our run up check. Everything checks out, so we do the customary turn to look for traffic...scanning for people mistakenly taking a right hand pattern too. It's a quiet day - nobody is in the pattern. The weather is also the best it has been - no crosswind at all - just a gentle breeze blowing from the 31 end of the runway. Time to do some radio work! "Houston Gulf - Cessna 48830, departing runway 13, Houston Gulf...". This time I get it more or less right. At least everyone could tell where I was this time, and I didn't talk over anyone...
   
We taxied out onto the runway, and got lined up on the taxiway, and shoved the throttle to the firewall, and we were off. I manage to zigzag a little down the runway - my feet got a little bit high on the rudder pedals, and I ended up touching the brakes a little (this caused the zigzag). It's easier to take off if you don't do that! This time, I overcorrected a little for the left turning tendancy of the airplane (probably because all my takeoffs so far have had pretty much the same crosswind blowing us to the left, so I think I put my boot down a little too far on the right pedal).
   We get airborne, and around 450 feet, I put the nose down a little to check no-one was trying to shoot an approach on runway 31. All clear, so we made a turn to the left of about 45 degrees to exit the pattern, and go off to the practise area.
   My scanning technique got some reinforcement tonight - the 172 was still in the area, and I didn't see them for a while - I let my eyes sweep around. You need to stop and look at one point for about a second at a time, because your eyes are more sensitive to motion that way. When I did this, I saw them turning away from us, towards the powerplant.
   The first thing we did when we got out to the practise area was some more slow flight (preceeded by clearing turns to check nobody else was joining us in the practise area, particularly that 172...I think he must have been doing touch and gos, because we never saw them again until after we landed) I slow the airplane down...remember to check airspeed...altitude...heading...airspeed...altitude...heading... and keep them constant! I keep hearing "you want to slow down, not go down"...those words are beginning to etch themselves on my mind. It sure did take a lot of concentration to keep all that lot constant. I'd be scanning the instruments and for traffic...hmmm...airspeed is rising and we're descending a little...increase pitch angle (remember, pitch for airspeed, power for altitude). Then I notice whilst I've been paying too much attention to the airspeed and altitude, we've drifted 10 degrees off course! Argh! I need more practise at slow flight, but it's coming along. After a while, I start to get the hang of it a bit more, so Lee says "well, lets relax for a while", so we just circled for a little while and talked a bit more about slow flight, then stalls.
   Anyone who has not flown before needs to understand this about a stall before I go on - it's an aerodynamic affect, and nothing to do with the engine (I always thought a car stalling was an odd thing. I always thought "how can a car stall when it's firmly rooted on the ground and has no wings?", since I had been playing with flight simulation long before I learned to drive - I even got to fly a commercial jet simulator of the Hawker Siddley Trident 3 (HS121) when I was a kid, so this had never been an issue with me. That simulator was the real thing too - full motion, and a high-fidelity cockpit replica - if you ever get a chance to get to go on a commercial jet simulator, go do it - it really is an excellent thing to do!)
   First I did some approach stalls. We had tried one of these in the last lesson, but  this time we did them with the flaps down (so we were in an approach configuration, as if coming into land). Lee showed me one, then I did two myself - I'd do a clearing turn to look for traffic, then slow down and apply carb heat (this prevents carburettor icing at low RPM) as if doing a slow flight excercise. However, this time I kept pulling back on the yoke, holding our altitude whilst all the time reducing airspeed (pitch angle controlling airspeed). At around a little under 55 knots, the stall warning horn started going off, and it got more insistent as the airspeed indicator wound back off the green arc...then came back through to the start of the white arc (the stall speed with full flaps). It took what seemed like forever before the aircraft would actually stall! The needle went back behind the white arc, and the stall warning increased it's urgent tone. The aircraft was starting to buffet a lot, and feel very very mushy. Then the stall broke! I released all the back pressure and added a little forward pressure. Full power! Carb heat off! The airspeed increased, "Just a little climb", comes a voice in my ear as the nose pitches back up too far... As the airspeed came up, I retracted the flaps and we were back straight and level. There, that wasn't too bad, was it? We lost maybe a couple of hundred feet during the excercise, which really brings it home why you don't want to do that on final approach, since you are going to get lower than this. Anyway, it was pretty exciting, and not at all gut-wrenching or frightening!
   Time for power-on (or departure stalls). Lee starts by demonstrating one to me. First, we do the clearing turn, then throttle back to 1600 RPM, and allow the speed to decrease to around 65 knots. Then holding that airspeed, we apply full power, then haul back on the yoke. The airspeed goes down. We are now in a takeoff configuration - no flaps this time, and no carb heat. Lee was really pulling back on the yoke, and the stall warning was heralding the impending stall. The airspeed indicator kept going back, past the green arc (incidentally, this is called VS1 - stall speed in a clean configuration). The buffeting was really noticable now, but although the stall horn was wailing tones of impending dire flight conditions, we were still not quite stalled. The airspeed went back behind the white arc...still we didn't stall. I could feel the right rudder pedal was down quite a way to correct for the airplane's left turning tendency.
  Then "it" came. Those of you who are currently learning in the feisty little C152 will know exactly what "it" is. "It" is when your instructor stalls the airplane, and holds the right rudder in a little after the stall. The nose pitched WAY down, and quickly too - and the right wing dropped. I could swear we were about to enter a spin! Lee released all the rudder pressure and back pressure on the yoke, let the airspeed build, levelled the wings and pulled us out into a slight climb...then back to straight and level.
  Now it was my turn to initiate the roller coaster ride (well, at least this will prepare me for Six Flags Astroworld's roller coasters!). So, I did a clearing turn, and reduced the throttle and got the speed back to 60 knots. Then I added full power, and kept pulling up, and adding more right rudder as the left turning tendencies of P-factor, gyroscopic precession of the propellor and torque all took their left turning effects. Once again, back went the airspeed. The airspeed needle was going back in inverse proportion to my anxiety about what I knew would happen next! However, the stall was a lot less adrenaline-producing now that I knew exactly where it would go, and what would happen. You can feel when it will happen better when you have the controls in your own hands, so it's not as unexpected. Even so, the aircraft still breaks into the stall suddenly, and rolls quite sharply. I overdid it a little when pushing the yoke forward, as we enter a steeper dive than when Lee was at the controls, but it wasn't too severe.
   Our hour was just about up, so we headed for home, and I got to do some more radio work. I didn't fluff my words like I did last Saturday, but I still forget the "midfield" bit on our downwind leg as we head back to runway 13. I still can't get used to how high we seem to come in on final approach, but the C152 seems to have a pretty steep glideslope on final (I've seen others comment on this, too). I stay on the controls as we land...I notice Lee isn't letting go of them yet for landings...but that'll come soon!

Conclusion
   
If you are learning or about to start, don't let the intentional stall work put you off! Once you know what's going to happen, they are very exhilarating and fun, especially those power on stalls! (If you get motion sickness, then I'd recommend some sort of preventitive such as natural ginger beer (ginger beer is non alcoholic - make sure you get the right stuff though!) or those anti-seasickness bands, since power on stalls are fairly abrupt - as I've said, I'm pleased I don't suffer from motion sickness, so I don't have to worry about any of that stuff!). In fact, stalls were a nice relief after the concentration required for slow flight.

So, what did I find out?
-
Scanning - take pictures with your eyes as you go along outside. You'll see traffic far more easily that way.
- Stalls - Doing them at altitude is fun...but you want to make sure that you don't get into a stall condition close to the ground as you might just hit it! Lee told me of one time where he suffered an arrival stall on final - he was teaching a student at a time in their own airplane, and all of a sudden and without warning the airplane stalled when the airspeed was still good and the glideslope was correct. Fortunately, his experience managed to override the instinct to pull back on the yoke (he said that when it goes like that so close to the ground, you really want to haul back on the yoke!), and he put the nose down and gained enough airspeed to get flying. However, the wheels did touch down briefly! After they got down, they tried to work out why they stalled - they double checked the weight - the weight and balance were all good and well within limits, and everything else checked out. His theory was was that there was a change in the air movement upwards caused by the nice hot July weather hitting the highway below, putting the relative wind in a more upward direction and exceeding the critical angle of attack. This incident also shows that the correct reaction will save the day - the aircraft was not damaged, and the occupants were only a little shook up from the experience of suddenly dropping out of the sky like that.

Well, it looks like next time we'll be doing some more slow flight, then some ground reference work (turning round a point, and flying a rectangle - that sort of thing). Let's hope there's some wind, but not too much!

(Come back for Saturday's flight...same place, some time on Saturday afternoon...)

Date & Time: Sunday, 11th May, 1997, 16:20 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 0.4 hours (ground) 1.1 hours (air) - - Total 1.5 hrs. Running logbook total: 4.7 hrs
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F
Dual Instruction with Lee Simmons.

One-two-one-niner-Foxtrot...

Saturday got called off, and we moved to Sunday because a cold front had come through rather more slowly than usual on Friday night, leaving wet conditions with winds perpendicular to our runway. It was also plane-change time! We'd initially scheduled a flight in the club's Cessna 172 so I could see what the difference was, but since the 152 is out for a repaint, and then the owner is selling it, I think we will end up sticking with the 172, even though it's a little more expensive to fly. It'll certainly be good for the cross countries, though (a bit more range and speed, and better nav equipment).
   So, what's the 172 like compared to the 152? Well, the instrument panel on ours has more navigational equipment (two VOR's, a glideslope indicator on OBS 1, a DME (Distance Measuring Equipment), and an ADF, wheras the 152 only has 1 VOR and an ADF). The instruments also seem a little clearer, and there are more markings on the attitude indicator (or artificial horizon, if you prefer). You also sit a lot taller in the 172 - the 152 is like sitting in a Ford Mustang, where your seat is pretty low, and the 172 is more like a pickup truck or minivan - you sit up higher and get more visibility over the glare shield. The 172 is also quite a bit wider - there is a space between the front seats, and there's more space for your feet on the rudder pedals. We also get a strobe light too (you can hear the strobe going off like a camera flashgun when you turn it on).
   Preflight is pretty much the same as in the 152, so I go through that, then we taxi out, do the runup check and get ready for takeoff.
  "Houston Gulf traffic - Cessna One Two One Niner Foxtrot, departing runway one three, Houston Gulf" is our call as we roll onto the runway, get straightened up on the centerline, and ready to go. I pushed the throttle to the firewall, and off we went. The 172 accelerated down the runway, and before we knew it, the aircraft felt slightly mushy as the wheels started to leave the ground, and I applied some back pressure to get us airborne. It took quite a bit more effort on the controls than the 152! This is a heavier airplane, with larger control surfaces... Up we went, and this time, I managed to more or less track the runway as we went off. In no time at all, we were at 450 feet, so I dipped the nose a little to check for traffic. All was clear, so I kept climbing. The 172 really does climb quite a bit quicker than the 152! The extra horsepower in the engine is very noticable - we got to our desired altitude of 2,500 ft. much more quickly than we did in the 152.
   First off, we make a clearing turn and do some slow flight. I'm getting better at it - I manage to keep our heading much more constant this time, although on our first slow flight excercise I did wander a little off where we wanted to go. Then a couple of stalls - one approach stall with flaps down, and one departure stall at full power. The approach stall was pretty similar to in the 152, except it took much more tugging on the controls. The departure stall was not nearly such a sudden snap as it was in the 152. This time, the airplane dived off to the left (last time we went right) and the airspeed climbed to about 120 knots as I eased back into a slight climb. All these manoevers took a bit more pulling on the controls to do - Lee described the control feeling to be like a large family car (the 172) as opposed to a 2-door coupe (the 152).
   Next on the agenda was an introduction to ground reference flying - we used SPX as a ground reference for flying a rectangle (safely above the pattern altitude, of course, and keeping on the radio so everyone knew where we were!). It didn't seem too difficult - I held the altitude constant throughout the manoever. Lee took care of the radio work whilst I did this. We didn't have much wind though, so we'll probably be repeating this one a few times on a windier day.
   We exited the rectangle, flew over Interstate 45 and on roughly towards Galveston. Now it was time to try out a new manoever - the Dutch Roll. The Dutch Roll is basically rolling the aircraft left and right (about 30 degrees each time) whilst keeping our nose pointed the same way. We lined up on a distant object that was to be our target, then Lee demonstrated. It looked easy. Well... then I got to try it and I was all over the place! A couple more goes at it, and I had it pretty much nailed. The technique that seemed to work the best was to rock the airplane around yourself - keep your eyes and head level on the horizon, looking at your target - so your head doesn't move relative to it, and use something in the foreground (a bug splattered on the windshield, a screw in the glareshield etc). to keep your nose lined up. Then rock the airplane using the ailerons to rock and the rudder to keep on target.
   After this, we did a little more emergency procedure work - Lee pointed out some good landing sites to shoot for, including a couple of grass runways, so when the examiner pulls the power on me, I have some good places already stored up in case he does it in that general area.
   It was now time to go home. I get to do some more radio work, and this time I got it right! We had to wait a little while as a couple of people talked on top of each other, then one of them rebroadcast... (we also had an instructor or student who was inadvertantly pressing the Push-To-Talk whilst their instructor was giving them a bit of advice about pattern flying earlier on). So off we go...downwind, turn left for base. We use the runway to work out where to roll out on base, but the wing obscured it (this tends to happen in high-wings like the Cessna) so I go a bit too far! Never mind...we rolled back the other way, and continued. Then onto our final approach. Lee works the radios, and lets me set up the final approach! Glide speed, 65 knots - we have full flaps, pull the engine to more or less idle, and try and track the runway centerline. I weaved a little bit - again, it was taking quite a bit of concentration to ensure the numbers on the instruments were right, and that we were going in the right direction too. Lee gives me a little help on getting it right on, then I get ready to flare! My first landing is coming up... I flared a little high, so Lee pushed the nose down a litlle, then I flared again, and we touched down. As we rolled out, I retracted the flaps and put the carb heat off. I think we might be starting some touch-and-goes next week!

Conclusions.
   
The C172 is a nice airplane - but if you are learning in one of these right now, I can heartily recommend you try out the 152 as well, just to compare and contrast with a lighter airplane with a smaller engine. The 152 has fun handling characteristics, too.
   We did a lot today! Some slow flight, stalls, flying around a rectangle, Dutch Roll and a landing, as well as get going in the 172. I'm feeling more confident at the controls - I'm holding altitude, airspeed and heading better, and learning new things all the time (well, you never stop learning with aviation - after all, they say your private ticket is your license to learn.) I'm also getting better at scanning for traffic, and scanning the instruments.

What today taught...
- Dutch Rolls - keeping your eyes nailed on the target certainly does help...
- Bigger aircraft need more effort at the controls to affect a change of some sort. Control surfaces are bigger, and more wind is trying to push them back to their center position. The trim wheel takes on a new significance in the 172 for removing control pressure!
- When flaring to land, it's a good idea to use some of your peripheral vision to better judge your altitude. Looking at the end of the runway won't give you a very good sense of how high you are off it, but seeing what's a little to the side will help you get the flare at the right height (if I'd kept on going at the altitude I was flaring, we'd have had quite a bumpy landing I think!)
- One interesting note I saw in the 172's handbook... the maximum window open speed is the redline speed, so if you have any airsick passengers, they can safely toss their cookies out of the window if you've run out of sick bags!

Come back for Week 3 - starts on Thursday (weather permitting, of course!)

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